The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	An inquiry into engineering career choice and career satisfaction
Author:	Bachs, Gunars
View Online:	njit-etd1984-036 (xi, 81 pages ~ 2.7 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Industrial and Management Engineering
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Management Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Mihalasky, John (Committee chair)
Date:	1984-01
Keywords:	Engineers Engineering as a profession Job satisfaction
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	The purpose of this thesis was to ascertain factors that motivate a person to study engineering, and to examine the aspects of engineering career satisfaction. This study was conducted as a survey by means of a mail questionnaire, which was distributed among graduates of New Jersey Institute of Technology. Another sample, comprised of master's degree recipients of NJIT who had received their bachelor's degree from other undergraduate schools, served as a control group. Motivation factors and positive and negative aspects of the engineering career were established and ranked in order of their importance. A method to measure career satisfaction was devised. Change of career satisfaction with change in age and work experience were studied, and trend lines were obtained that showed a slight rise in job satisfaction for NJIT graduates and a slight drop for the graduates of other schools. The tallied up figures showed that about one quarter of the respondents from each sample were dissatisfied with their careers.